James Kirkup is The Telegraph's Executive Editor (Politics). He was previously the Telegraph's Political Editor and has worked at Westminster since 2001.

Is David Cameron softening his attitudes towards Europe?

Cameron speaks to the press after a meeting of the European Council (Photo: AFP)

Hmm. Is David Cameron mellowing on Europe? I ask because the Prime Minister has just finished a press conference after his first EU summit here in Brussels. Though he warned that some Europeans will continue to press for integration, he suggested that Europe has changed in recent years. To wit, it's no longer the Franco-German integrationist Project that haunts sceptic nightmares.

Instead, he said, the arrival of the eastern Europeans has swung the EU debate towards Britain's traditional pro-market, state-to-state agenda. Now, in Brussels and other EU capitals, that's hardly controversial. Indeed, it's a pretty orthodox statement for many EU-watchers. But it's not an idea that finds much favour among Eurosceptic Conservatives, who believe the super-state project remains very much underway.

Anyway, Mr Cameron said this:

Of course there are those in Europe who want to progress towards greater integration and seek treaty changes to bring it about. But now Europe is so much wider and broader, with the countries of Eastern and Central Europe as members, that will help push us in a more intergovernmental direction, which I support.

So the wider and broader Europe takes some of the pressure off further integration.

PS. Another little symbol. My colleague Bruno Waterfield has confirmed that when Mr Cameron had breakfast with Jose Manual Barroso, the European Commission president, this morning, he became the first Conservative premier ever to cross the threshold of the Berlaymont, the Commission's glass-and-steel HQ here in Brussels. The building is regarded by some sceptics as the ultimate source of integrationist evil.